


Keep A Light Burning

by Brumeier



Series: Life in the Yukon [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, Established Relationship, Legends, M/M, Traditions, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-31 19:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21246869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Rodney discovers that Lantea has yet another quirky tradition that happens in winter, but this one is a little spooky.
Relationships: Evan Lorne/Clone Jack O'Neill, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, Ronon Dex/Evan Lorne
Series: Life in the Yukon [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1095657
Comments: 32
Kudos: 93
Collections: Spooktober 2019, Story Works





	Keep A Light Burning

**Author's Note:**

> **Written for:**
> 
> [Spooktober Challenge:](https://spooktoberchallenge.dreamwidth.org) ghost story  
[Story Works Flash Challenge:](https://story-works.livejournal.com/80892.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=JournalNewEntry) picture prompt #10 (see below)
> 
> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/156598319@N08/48987988878/in/dateposted-friend/)  


_(Thank you so much to StarWatcher for the lovely cover art!)_

* * *

Rodney thought he was getting the hang of life in Lantea. Sure, the residents were quirky and sometimes downright strange, and they had odd traditions like running through the snow in just their underwear, but they also seemed to accept Rodney despite his failings at most social conventions.

And then he found himself trekking out - on foot! - with seemingly the whole town to Long Miles Lake. Rodney was bundled up in his warmest outer wear, furry tuque pulled down low on his forehead. John walked beside him, but not close because his mongrel dog Mongo was between them.

There were other dogs, too. Clint’s one-eyed dog Lucky, and a seeming parade of Huskies and Malamutes and other giant-sized, overly-furred beasts. None of them was on a leash, but they were all remarkably well-behaved. 

“Tell me again why we’re not driving?” Rodney asked.

“Because we always walk,” was John’s informative reply.

Everyone was unusually somber, even chatty Blair the radio DJ. Leading them out to the lake was a guy Rodney didn’t know very well. He lived outside of town and raised sled dogs – they could probably be counted among the four-footed – and he was holding an old oil lantern in front of him, letting it light the way. (Rodney had a flashlight in his pocket, because he wasn’t taking any chances.)

Even Caldwell was along for the ride, though he seemed to disdain most of the quirky town traditions. Naturally he was at the head of the pack with the lantern guy.

“Do we have to walk back, too?”

“You want a piggy-back, Doc?” Jon asked with a smirk. 

He was walking just ahead of Rodney and John with Evan and Ronon, and Rodney would be lying if he said he’d never thought about how the mechanics of that relationship worked behind closed doors. There were a lot of ridiculously good-looking people living in Lantea.

“There’ll be a big dinner after,” John promised. He reached over Mongo and held Rodney’s gloved hand in his own. “It’s not much farther.”

Rodney had discovered he’d do almost anything for John. He’d never felt that way about anyone before and it was a little terrifying.

When the lake finally came into view, Rodney gave a sigh of relief. Not that he could really tell where the lake was, since it was covered over in snow and ice. But everyone stopped walking and ranged themselves along the area where the shore would normally be. It was a beautiful night, the sky over Lantea full of stars. It never failed to take Rodney’s breath away.

“I love this,” John whispered next to him, squeezing his hand.

Mongo _wuffed_ his agreement.

“Welcome, everyone,” Caldwell said, facing the gathered crowd. “Tonight we honor the memory of a Lantean hero. Cam?”

The guy with the lantern – “Cam Mitchell,” John reminded him – held the lantern about chest high so it illuminated his face.

“Genevieve Peace came to Alaska in the 1930s to make her own way in the last American frontier. She settled in Lantea, in the area that came to be called Peace Ridge, and took an active part in helping our town grow and thrive. Her sled dog team regularly made supply runs to more remote towns and native villages, delivering mail and food and medicine.”

Rodney nudged Mongo out of the way so he could get closer to John. Purely in the interests of staying warm.

“Genevieve was on her way back from taking medicine to a village stricken with diphtheria when a sudden winter storm blew in and she and her sled team got themselves off course. It had been an unusually mild winter that year and when they tried to cross Long Miles Lake, the thin ice cracked and broke beneath them.”

That was something Rodney could imagine all too well and he shivered at the thought of it. John put an arm around him.

“Neither Genevieve nor her sled team was ever seen again. There was only the hole in the ice and part of her broken sled to tell the tale once the storm blew over and her neighbors went looking for her. Some people say that on cold winter nights, when a storm blows in off the mountains, you can hear Genevieve out on the lake, urging her team forward. Trying to get them all back home again.”

“That’s depressing,” Rodney muttered.

“Sad,” said JB, who was standing nearby, the one empty sleeve of his puffy coat pinned up. “You can never go home again.”

There was a tone in his voice, an overwhelming sense of regret, that stopped the flippant response that was on Rodney’s tongue. Mongo seemed to sense it, too. He leaned against JB’s leg, tail swiping through the snow when JB scratched his enormous head.

“We leave this lantern on the shore every year, on the anniversary, with the hopes that it’ll help guide Genevieve and her team back home to Lantea, where her spirit can finally be at rest.”

Cam set the lantern on a stack of flat stones, light flickering.

“On by, Genevieve!” he called out, his voice echoing. “Come on home!”

That was the end of the ceremony. People started talking in little groups, some already heading back to town and whatever festivities awaited there. John went to talk to Evan, but Rodney kept looking out across the frozen lake, thinking about how close Genevieve had been to town. If the temperature had been a little colder, the ice a little thicker, she’d have made it.

“You believe in ghosts, Dr. McKay?” JB asked Rodney. He was contemplating the lake as well.

“I don’t know,” Rodney replied honestly. “I’ve never seen one. But I’ve never seen gravity, either, and I know that’s real.”

“I feel like I’m surrounded by ‘em every day,” JB murmured.

“I heard her once.” Ronon joined them, dreadlocks tucked up in a long, knit cap. “I was ice fishing at night. I could hear the dogs. Could hear the sound of the sled moving across the snow.”

“How’d you know it was her?” JB asked.

“Wasn’t anyone else there.”

Rodney stuffed his hands deeper in the pockets of his parka, unnerved. “Can we save the scary stories for Halloween? I’m starving. Where’s John?”

“You ready to head back?” John asked, materializing as if Rodney had summoned him.

“Unless you want to carry me when I pass out from hypoglycemia.”

John rolled his eyes. “Come on, drama king. Wouldn’t want you dying of hunger.”

He looped his arm through Rodney’s, and with his other hand produced a Power Bar from his pocket. Rodney snatched it, glad for the distraction. And pleased that John had thought to bring him a snack.

“You just might be worth keeping around, Sheppard.”

They bickered and teased each other all the way back to Lantea, the routine familiar and comfortable, but in the back of his mind Rodney was listening for the sound of a doomed dog sled team, and the woman who’d come so far only to meet such a terrible end.

He hoped his coming-to-Alaska story would have a much happier ending.

**Author's Note:**

> **AN:** I really wanted to write something for this flash challenge, and when I scrolled through the different picture prompts and saw the lantern and the lake, I knew it had to be for the Alaska series. I think Rodney is only just scratching the surface of what Lantea has to offer. ::grins:: According to my (less than) extensive online research, 'on by' is dog mushing terminology that means to pass another team or a distraction. In the confines of this story, it's Cam's way of urging Genevieve to move past what happened to her and finally get to her eternal rest.


End file.
